Howard Roberts

Comparable in skill to guitarists like Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis, Howard Roberts devoted the bulk of his professional life to studio work in commercial music after settling in Los Angeles around 1950. He quickly became a fixture in recording sessions there, though he did pursue jazz projects from time to time, with standout efforts including a pair of Verve albums between 1956 and 1959, a 1977 Concord date, and a 1979 Discovery release; by contrast, the majority of his recordings, notably those on Capitol during the 1960s, hold less appeal. As a co-founder of Hollywood's Guitar Institute of Technology, he proved to be a passionate and skilled teacher who contributed a recurring instructional feature to Guitar Player.